I'm Going to San Francisco Next weekend! And I want to meet you! And I need advice on what to see and where to go and what to wear and whoa, everything. Plane advice is good too: I haven't flown since before 9/11.

27 February 2010

RADIO'S BACK and TV's got it! A crazy collection of long versions of TV themes from cartoons, the Brits, Mike Post, Whedon, Barenaked Ladies and MORE!
at the top of the next hour (6PM WestUS, 9PM EastUS, 1AM GB, 11AM Japan, Noon EastAus)

The Tobolowsky Files Podcast If you are a fan of TV & Movies and enjoy listening to podcasts, you should be listening to the very entertaining and surprisingly educational Tobolowsky Files. →Read more...

26 February 2010

The Pitfalls Of Fiction In light of this Meta Post (and this MeCha thread) I was thinking about The Bechdel Test and Deggan's Rule and wondering, how do you address these when you're writing a story in a period and place where women are under wraps and minorities are largely nonexistant?→Read more...

24 February 2010

Heimo's Arctic Refuge "In 1980, Jimmy Carter established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the Alaskan Interior. Only six families of white settlers were grandfathered in and allowed to keep cabins in the refuge—of them, only one still stays there year-round living off the land. His name is Heimo Korth." (via)

I wish that some people I know would read this, including a relative of mine. But unfortunately, even if they did read it, they would conclude that it didn't apply to them. *sigh* Wish it had the sidebar; I may need to go buy the print copy.

And it TOTALLY applies to men too. I hope it'll help someone, somewhere.

What should I do with my many short comic and children's book scripts? I might illustrate a couple myself, but I'm not versatile enough to do all of them (anytime in the next 20 years) and would like to find an artist(s). I'd also like to find a publisher, natcherly. Somebody who's a fairly big name in the comics industry is having a look at a couple via FaceBook, and I sent one to a legendary comics artist who friended me on FB and sent me a cool e-mail as well. Beyond that, where do I go? I've been writing for years, I'm a damn perfectionist and my own worst critic, and I can finally honestly say I'm consistently producing darn good stuff. I'll post a link to an example for feedback, if anyone's interested.

AskMecha: round-trip voucher for free United flight in continental US. Where to go? I got bumped last year and now have a voucher for a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the continental US that United flies. I need to book by tomorrow, with travel any time in the next year. I want to go somewhere random and new, not visit people I know. But I am drawing a giant, indecisive blank! Hope me, Metachat? →Read more...

Sketchy Santas is doing an actual paper book and possibly wants to put my photo in it. Should I let them make some money off me? I didn't really think mine was all that sketchy. I'd rather have a drawing in a Bad Spock book, if they'd do one. →Read more...

Stupid technology question. I am buying some old radio shows in mp3 format. I have the option of mp3 CDs or mp3 DVDs, which are much cheaper. But will those play on my CD player? My CD player plays mp3 files but all these formats have me kind of confused, and google isn't helping.

Hey! I'm Back on the Radio! MetaRadio that is, starting in a few minutes (10AM Pacific, 6PM GMT, the rest you can figure out for yourself) until... well, if nobody else wants to 'cast, until the Arse Hat Program Diector kicks me off or I get bored... I'll be at #bunnies if you wanna know what the @#$% I'm playing. Toon in.

The ballbearing rolls down the shoot and clicks the toaster lever, the toast flies up and triggers the [etc.]... Help me out: What's the name of the fellow who did all these classic devices that filtered into cartoons and such?

What is your favorite U.S. state or Canadian province, and why? Because of its beauty? Culture? Politics? Skiing? Sun-bathing? Because you grew up there? All answers, with or without prejudice, are valid.

do you get this? Being nervous but not sure what about? I got a lot of things to work on, a lot of gaps to close, a lot of thinking and resolving to do but none of it is actually *pressing* so it's strange to be repeatedly in temporary states of bother about nothing in particular.→Read more...

Project brain In my quest for a new jewelry box, I’ve found myself wandering down a do-it-myself bypath and have gotten into the state of “project brain”, which is characterized by the strong desire to make something in particular, a preoccupation with ways and means, and much research-related activity. Also it is symptomized by a rash of internet links. →Read more...

I've been kinda complaining about the densely packed holiday/event season going on now: ValentineDay/Chinese-LunarNewYear/PresidentsDay-Lincoln'sRealBirthday/Carnival-MardiGras-FatTuesday/TED/WinterOlympics-NBAAllStarWeekend/MultipleMeChanBirthdays... But I fully endorse adding International Grover Appreciation Day to the mix because, well, I'm a fanboy for Grover (and Scalzi).

So I'm in the shower thinking of Joyce Carol Oates (no snickering) and is it just me or does American fiction (especially in the short story form) have a unique flirtation with darkness/unease?→Read more...

Free Olympic Zip Line !! this looks sooooo fun that i'm going to have to go downtown and go for a ride . If there anyone one else who is going to be in Vancouver over the next 2 weeks and who wants to go a'zippin, let me know and we can go check it out

Watch this So I've bought two watches to replace the ones I had. A gold tone watch (which is just like the one I used to have), and a steel watch. I'm wearing the steel watch at the moment and keep sneaking admiring looks at it.

"A show that is so wretched, it lives up to its name: it is truly something to behold, a marvel, a wonder. It is hateful and awful, a level of terrible rarely seen for 30 straight minutes, let alone for four seasons."
Rich at fourfour's hilarious, epic takedown of the sitcom Small Wonder.

Should I buy a domain name? I just thought of a really cool domain name for someone like me. No, I won't tell you what it is unless I buy it. But should I buy it? It seems hard to justify spending even $10/year on something like that, especially when I have more reputable-seeming .edu web space, and am likely to continue to do so while I have a career in academia. Has having your own domain name enhanced your life or career in some way?

07 February 2010

trivial stuff that makes my mind ASPLODE! (1) when people don't realize the word "shawty" comes from "shorty" (2) when people want to reprimand you with "at least out here that's how we do it.."→Read more...

06 February 2010

THE RESIDENTS! We saw them last night and they are freaky, amazing, disturbing, brilliant as ever. The show they're doing now is called "The Talking Light," and it features an old man named Randy telling ghost stories to the audience.→Read more...

Does anyone know anything about a milanesa cut of beef? I bought some at the market thinking I might be able to cut it up for a stir-fry, but googling suggests that one is supposed to tenderize the cut by pounding it fairly flat, and I'm not sure if that's necessary for the cut of meat or just a first step for the traditional preparation.

They always get you on the tax evasion. Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market
value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you
return it to its rightful owner.

AskMecha: Got a question about the most recent underemployment figures According to the linked story, the overall unemployment rate dropped from 10 percent to 9.7 percent. But the underemployment rate dropped almost a full point, from 17.3 percent to 16.5 percent. How did this happen? Have all of those involuntarily part-time workers won full-time schedules?

Did you see the same movie that the director made? [spoilers] Amazingly detailed film deconstructions. Rob Ager shows how Mulholland Drive has a coherent, linear narrative that Lynch purposefully rearranged and how Kubrick gave visual and sonic clues in The Shining that all paranormal activities were actually dreams or delusions. Example: Jack Nicholson, waiting for the job interview, reads a copy of Playgirl with an article on parental incest. He freely admits some of his theories are hard to swallow, so he doesn't come off as a complete nutter.

Need Some Feedback Regarding Possible Job - I have been a volunteer moderator for a very popular game for 3.5 months. There's an opportunity to become a paid moderator and that's where it gets sticky.→Read more...

03 February 2010

Stupidest copyright ruling ever. Apparently a part of the flute riff in Down Under has been ruled to be a rip off of "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree". I have re-listened, and can certainly identify the TEN NOTES ON ONE INSTRUMENT in the whole song that may have been lifted, and it pisses me off. It's an homage, you greedy lawyer-type bastards (and one that I'd never noticed until today). Grrrrr. →Read more...

02 February 2010

Blue eyes crying in the kitchen... Trilby keeps getting a crusty dark red residue near the inside corners of his eyes. He cleans it off when he washes his face, but it immediately builds up again. And I've seen him with tears coming from his eyes a time or two. Is this something I should worry about? He's had this ever since I got him at Halloween, and at first I assumed that if it had been a problem the Humane Society would have caught it and informed me, but now I'm a little concerned. YANAV, YANTV, blah, blah, blah.

Of all the things I love about this video: I think I love the sound editing the best. When she just looses it to SuperCalifragolous and briefly becomes the best version of the Joker ever. (Totally, completely NSFWseriously) Amanda Lepore by David LaChapelle

What key are most of your favorite songs in? According to this gadget, which analyzes your favorites via Last.fm, my favorite key is G♭ minor (29%). Mouse over the colors in your pie chart and it'll tell you some of the songs in each key.